Situation in Ukraine
- Thread starter Infanteer
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Quote from Infanteer,
I apologize - it was a brain-fart (yes, even I make mistakes.... )
...and then the lone ranger took off his mask...... :-*
I apologize - it was a brain-fart (yes, even I make mistakes.... )
...and then the lone ranger took off his mask...... :-*
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Here's some of the latest news on the situation!
Dec. 27, 2004, 5:18PM
Ukraine leader refuses to concede election
Associated Press
"¢ Doctors say Yuschenko poisoned with dioxin 12/11
"¢ Ukraine court rules on election 12/3
"¢ Putin opposes new runoff 12/2
"¢ Rivals fail to resolve stalemate 11/26
"¢ Bush: World watching Ukraine crisis 11/26
"¢ Yuschenko appeals to high court 11/25
KIEV, Ukraine - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko celebrated his apparent victory in Ukraine's presidential election rerun today, but his opponent refused to concede defeat and vowed to challenge the results before Ukraine's Supreme Court in what could be a protracted legal battle.
The vast tent camp set up by orange-clad Yushchenko supporters on Kiev's main avenue after the fraud-plagued Nov. 21 election remained in place, indicating his backers were prepared for further tensions although no election-related violence was reported Sunday. Orange was Yushchenko's campaign color.
With ballots counted from 99.7 percent of precincts, official results gave Yushchenko 52.1 percent of the votes compared with 44.1 percent for Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yushchenko held a 2.3 million-vote lead with just 100,000 votes remaining to be counted at 133 polling stations.
Just more than 77 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Yushchenko claimed victory early today as exit polls gave him a strong lead. The Western-leaning politician, who was disfigured by dioxin poisoning, thanked protesters who spent weeks camped out in the capital's frigid streets for helping secure his electoral victory.
"Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you," he told a jubilant crowd in Kiev's Independence Square. "We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free. Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine."
But Yanukovych did not concede, and Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Yanukovych ally, said the prime minister's campaign would appeal the results to the Supreme Court, where Yushchenko took his legal appeals after the Nov. 21 vote. The court eventually overturned those results.
"We will appeal the falsification of the vote," Shufrych said, citing allegations of multiple voting and violations in voter lists.
Yanukovych's campaign had already filed numerous complaints to the Central Election Commission.
The commission has 15 days to announce the final results. Once the results are released, candidates have seven days to appeal.
Despite the promise of a court fight, Yanukovych's supporters were subdued. His headquarters canceled a rally planned today in his hometown of Donetsk, a city in Yanukovych's stronghold of eastern Ukraine.
Even before exit poll results were announced, a glum-looking Yanukovych told reporters that "if there is a defeat, there will be a strong opposition."
Some 12,000 foreign observers watched Sunday's unprecedented rerun to help prevent a repetition of fraud that led to Yanukovych's Nov. 21 victory being overturned by the court.
"The Ukrainian people finally had an opportunity to choose freely their next president," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington. "The overall vote brought Ukraine substantially closer to meeting international democratic standards. The Ukrainian people can truly be proud of this achievement."
Both campaigns complained of some violations Sunday. Yanukovych's campaign reported problems in pro-Yushchenko western Ukraine, such as Yushchenko campaign material being found near voting booths. Yushchenko's headquarters said the names of people who died 15 years ago were included on a voter list in Donetsk.
The observer delegation said today that Ukraine had made good progress toward meeting international standards for free and fair elections in Sunday's revote.
"It is the collective judgment of the organizations represented here that the Ukrainian elections have moved substantially closer to meeting OSCE and other international standards," said Bruce George, head of the delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other election watchdogs.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose own accession to power on a wave of peaceful protest in November 2003 inspired Ukraine's opposition, congratulated Yushchenko in a Ukrainian-language message delivered over Ukrainian television.
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski called Yushchenko's victory a "good and important choice" for Ukraine's relations with Europe, Kwasniewski's office said.
Tension during the fiercely fought election campaign was fueled by fraud allegations and Yushchenko's claims to have been poisoned by authorities in an assassination attempt. Doctors have confirmed he was poisoned by a nearly lethal amount of dioxin, which severely disfigured his face.
Yushchenko will need monthly blood tests to track how quickly the poison is leaving his body. Doctors have said they expect a gradual recovery, although they fear an increased long-term risk of a heart attack, cancer or other chronic diseases.
Yushchenko called his supporters back to Independence Square on Monday afternoon to defend his apparent election victory, if necessary, and asked for their help in what he called the main task facing the nation: forming a trustworthy government.
Thousands gathered, hoping for another appearance by Yushchenko after dark.
"Today is a golden day," said Mykola Rak, a 62-year-old sporting an orange armband.
People stopped in the square during the day to watch vote returns on a television monitor, chanting "Yu-shchen-ko! Yu-shchen-ko!" Their cheers were punctuated by blasts from car horns.
"Today we began to live! Today, we rose off our knees and showed ourselves and the world that our future can't be dictated to us. We will dictate it," said Olga Drik, 21, who festooned her purse with orange ribbons.
Voters had faced a crucial choice. Ukraine, a nation of 48 million people, is caught between the eastward-expanding European Union and NATO and an increasingly assertive Russia, its former imperial and Soviet-era master.
Yushchenko, a former Central Bank chief and prime minister, wants to move Ukraine closer to the West and advance economic and political reforms. Yanukovych emphasized tightening the Slavic country's ties with Russia as a means of maintaining stability.
Yushchenko built on the momentum of round-the-clock protests that echoed the spirit of the anti-communist revolutions that swept other East European countries in 1989-1990.
"Thousands of people that were and are at the square were not only waiting for this victory but they were creating it," he said. "In some time, in a few years, they'll be able to utter these historic words: 'Yes, this is my Ukraine and I am proud that I am from this country.'"
AND if that wasn't enough! >
KIEV, Ukraine - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych refused Monday to concede defeat in Ukraine's weekend presidential election, and said he would go to the Supreme Court to challenge the results.
"I will never recognize such a defeat, because the constitution and human rights were violated in our country and people died,â ? Yanukovych told reporters in the capital Kiev.
Official results from Sunday's vote, with ballots counted from 99.66 percent of precincts, gave opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko 52.09 percent compared to Yanukovych's 44.12 percent. Turnout was 77.2 percent.
Yushchenko's 2.3 million-vote lead was insurmountable: only 100,000 votes remained to be counted from 133 polling stations. Once the election commission releases its final preliminary results, both candidates have seven days to appeal.
Yanukovych said his campaign team had close to 5,000 complaints about how the voting was conducted.
He criticized lawmakers who approved election law reforms restricting home voting. Yanukovych blamed the ruling for leading to the reported deaths of elderly voters who went to the polls despite ill health - and despite the Constitutional Court's decision on the eve of the vote to throw out the restrictions.
The lawmakers "have no human qualities because when they were pressing the button (to pass the legislation), they didn't think about the complications,â ? Yanukovych said. "And the main question ... concerns the deaths of eight people who died during the election. Who will take responsibility for these lives, I'd like to know.â ?
He said he would demand that the results of Sunday's vote be reconsidered and canceled, but said he had not asked his supporters to organize protests.
"We will act in accordance with the laws of Ukraine. We will go down a legal path,â ? Yanukovych said.
But later, he said he had lost respect for the Supreme Court after its decision to annul the results of the Nov. 21 election, in which he had been declared the winner, because of fraud.
Asked whether he would consider going into the opposition, Yanukovych replied: "In the first place, I didn't lose.â ?
'Independent and free Ukraine'
Addressing crowds earlier, as exit polls made his lead clear, Yushchenko was jubilant.
"We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free. Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine.â ?
Yushchenko was not taking chances, however. He called his supporters back out onto the square Monday afternoon to defend his apparent election victory, if necessary, and asked for their help in what he called the main task facing the nation: forming a trustworthy government.
Ukrainians heading to work Monday stopped at Independence Square to see the latest results on a television monitor, cheering and chanting "Yu-shchen-ko! Yu-shchen-ko!â ? Their cheers were punctuated by blasts from car horns.
RELATED STORY
Ukrainian Americans vote in Chicago
Far fewer problems
Some 12,000 foreign observers watched Sunday's unprecedented third-round vote to help prevent a repeat of the apparent widespread fraud that sparked massive protests after Yanukovych was declared the winner of the Nov. 21 vote.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commission member Mykola Melnyk insisted: "This repeat vote was fair and honest, especially in comparison with the second round.â ?
Both campaigns still complained of some violations.
But monitors said they had seen far fewer problems this round, in which 77.2 percent of registered voters turned out.
"This is another country,â ? said Stefan Mironjuk, a German election monitor observing the vote in the northern Sumy region. "The atmosphere of intimidation and fear during the first and second rounds was absent. ... It was very, very calm.â ?
No election-related violence was reported.
Powell, regional leaders laud results
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday called the election a "historic moment for democracy in Ukraineâ ? and urging citizens to accept the result.
"The Ukrainian people can truly be proud of this achievement,â ? Powell told reporters. "We congratulate Ukrainians for the courage they displayed in standing up for their democratic rights. We call on Ukrainians now to set their divisions behind them and to refrain from violence, separatism or provocations.â ?
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose own accession to power on a wave of peaceful protest in November 2003 inspired Ukraine's opposition, congratulated Yushchenko in a Ukrainian-language message delivered over Ukrainian television. Saakashvili, who attended law school in then-Soviet Ukraine, apparently was the first foreign leader to publicly recognize Yushchenko's victory.
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski congratulated Yushchenko on Monday, describing his victory as a "good and important choiceâ ? for Ukraine's relations with Europe, Kwasniewski's office said.
Poland's former president, Lech Walesa, told the Polish news agency PAP that Yushchenko's victory meant "Ukraine on its road to freedom and democracy made a small move toward Europe.â ?
Ukrainian VIP killed
Ukrainian Transport Minister and one of Ukraine's most prominent businessmen Heorhiy Kyrpa was found dead on Monday at his home outside Kiev, a government source said.
"An investigating group from the police are working at the scene. He was found dead with gunshot wounds at his dacha just at the outskirts of Kiev,â ? the source said.
The television station 5 Kanal reported a gun was found near the body. It was not clear whether Kyrpa killed himself or was murdered, the government source told Reuters.
Kyrpa was named transport minister in July as part of an overhaul by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.
Kyrpa has had close ties to Kuchma and at one time was mentioned as a possible candidate in the presidential election.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Apparently the "bad guy" who "stole" the original vote and poisoned the guy whose president now is a convicted criminal with a glorious illegal past. Interesting to see how things will turn out, those type of people normally DO NOT like to be embarrassed, especially publicly....
Joe
Dec. 27, 2004, 5:18PM
Ukraine leader refuses to concede election
Associated Press
"¢ Doctors say Yuschenko poisoned with dioxin 12/11
"¢ Ukraine court rules on election 12/3
"¢ Putin opposes new runoff 12/2
"¢ Rivals fail to resolve stalemate 11/26
"¢ Bush: World watching Ukraine crisis 11/26
"¢ Yuschenko appeals to high court 11/25
KIEV, Ukraine - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko celebrated his apparent victory in Ukraine's presidential election rerun today, but his opponent refused to concede defeat and vowed to challenge the results before Ukraine's Supreme Court in what could be a protracted legal battle.
The vast tent camp set up by orange-clad Yushchenko supporters on Kiev's main avenue after the fraud-plagued Nov. 21 election remained in place, indicating his backers were prepared for further tensions although no election-related violence was reported Sunday. Orange was Yushchenko's campaign color.
With ballots counted from 99.7 percent of precincts, official results gave Yushchenko 52.1 percent of the votes compared with 44.1 percent for Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yushchenko held a 2.3 million-vote lead with just 100,000 votes remaining to be counted at 133 polling stations.
Just more than 77 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Yushchenko claimed victory early today as exit polls gave him a strong lead. The Western-leaning politician, who was disfigured by dioxin poisoning, thanked protesters who spent weeks camped out in the capital's frigid streets for helping secure his electoral victory.
"Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you," he told a jubilant crowd in Kiev's Independence Square. "We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free. Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine."
But Yanukovych did not concede, and Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Yanukovych ally, said the prime minister's campaign would appeal the results to the Supreme Court, where Yushchenko took his legal appeals after the Nov. 21 vote. The court eventually overturned those results.
"We will appeal the falsification of the vote," Shufrych said, citing allegations of multiple voting and violations in voter lists.
Yanukovych's campaign had already filed numerous complaints to the Central Election Commission.
The commission has 15 days to announce the final results. Once the results are released, candidates have seven days to appeal.
Despite the promise of a court fight, Yanukovych's supporters were subdued. His headquarters canceled a rally planned today in his hometown of Donetsk, a city in Yanukovych's stronghold of eastern Ukraine.
Even before exit poll results were announced, a glum-looking Yanukovych told reporters that "if there is a defeat, there will be a strong opposition."
Some 12,000 foreign observers watched Sunday's unprecedented rerun to help prevent a repetition of fraud that led to Yanukovych's Nov. 21 victory being overturned by the court.
"The Ukrainian people finally had an opportunity to choose freely their next president," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington. "The overall vote brought Ukraine substantially closer to meeting international democratic standards. The Ukrainian people can truly be proud of this achievement."
Both campaigns complained of some violations Sunday. Yanukovych's campaign reported problems in pro-Yushchenko western Ukraine, such as Yushchenko campaign material being found near voting booths. Yushchenko's headquarters said the names of people who died 15 years ago were included on a voter list in Donetsk.
The observer delegation said today that Ukraine had made good progress toward meeting international standards for free and fair elections in Sunday's revote.
"It is the collective judgment of the organizations represented here that the Ukrainian elections have moved substantially closer to meeting OSCE and other international standards," said Bruce George, head of the delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other election watchdogs.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose own accession to power on a wave of peaceful protest in November 2003 inspired Ukraine's opposition, congratulated Yushchenko in a Ukrainian-language message delivered over Ukrainian television.
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski called Yushchenko's victory a "good and important choice" for Ukraine's relations with Europe, Kwasniewski's office said.
Tension during the fiercely fought election campaign was fueled by fraud allegations and Yushchenko's claims to have been poisoned by authorities in an assassination attempt. Doctors have confirmed he was poisoned by a nearly lethal amount of dioxin, which severely disfigured his face.
Yushchenko will need monthly blood tests to track how quickly the poison is leaving his body. Doctors have said they expect a gradual recovery, although they fear an increased long-term risk of a heart attack, cancer or other chronic diseases.
Yushchenko called his supporters back to Independence Square on Monday afternoon to defend his apparent election victory, if necessary, and asked for their help in what he called the main task facing the nation: forming a trustworthy government.
Thousands gathered, hoping for another appearance by Yushchenko after dark.
"Today is a golden day," said Mykola Rak, a 62-year-old sporting an orange armband.
People stopped in the square during the day to watch vote returns on a television monitor, chanting "Yu-shchen-ko! Yu-shchen-ko!" Their cheers were punctuated by blasts from car horns.
"Today we began to live! Today, we rose off our knees and showed ourselves and the world that our future can't be dictated to us. We will dictate it," said Olga Drik, 21, who festooned her purse with orange ribbons.
Voters had faced a crucial choice. Ukraine, a nation of 48 million people, is caught between the eastward-expanding European Union and NATO and an increasingly assertive Russia, its former imperial and Soviet-era master.
Yushchenko, a former Central Bank chief and prime minister, wants to move Ukraine closer to the West and advance economic and political reforms. Yanukovych emphasized tightening the Slavic country's ties with Russia as a means of maintaining stability.
Yushchenko built on the momentum of round-the-clock protests that echoed the spirit of the anti-communist revolutions that swept other East European countries in 1989-1990.
"Thousands of people that were and are at the square were not only waiting for this victory but they were creating it," he said. "In some time, in a few years, they'll be able to utter these historic words: 'Yes, this is my Ukraine and I am proud that I am from this country.'"
AND if that wasn't enough! >
KIEV, Ukraine - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych refused Monday to concede defeat in Ukraine's weekend presidential election, and said he would go to the Supreme Court to challenge the results.
"I will never recognize such a defeat, because the constitution and human rights were violated in our country and people died,â ? Yanukovych told reporters in the capital Kiev.
Official results from Sunday's vote, with ballots counted from 99.66 percent of precincts, gave opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko 52.09 percent compared to Yanukovych's 44.12 percent. Turnout was 77.2 percent.
Yushchenko's 2.3 million-vote lead was insurmountable: only 100,000 votes remained to be counted from 133 polling stations. Once the election commission releases its final preliminary results, both candidates have seven days to appeal.
Yanukovych said his campaign team had close to 5,000 complaints about how the voting was conducted.
He criticized lawmakers who approved election law reforms restricting home voting. Yanukovych blamed the ruling for leading to the reported deaths of elderly voters who went to the polls despite ill health - and despite the Constitutional Court's decision on the eve of the vote to throw out the restrictions.
The lawmakers "have no human qualities because when they were pressing the button (to pass the legislation), they didn't think about the complications,â ? Yanukovych said. "And the main question ... concerns the deaths of eight people who died during the election. Who will take responsibility for these lives, I'd like to know.â ?
He said he would demand that the results of Sunday's vote be reconsidered and canceled, but said he had not asked his supporters to organize protests.
"We will act in accordance with the laws of Ukraine. We will go down a legal path,â ? Yanukovych said.
But later, he said he had lost respect for the Supreme Court after its decision to annul the results of the Nov. 21 election, in which he had been declared the winner, because of fraud.
Asked whether he would consider going into the opposition, Yanukovych replied: "In the first place, I didn't lose.â ?
'Independent and free Ukraine'
Addressing crowds earlier, as exit polls made his lead clear, Yushchenko was jubilant.
"We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free. Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine.â ?
Yushchenko was not taking chances, however. He called his supporters back out onto the square Monday afternoon to defend his apparent election victory, if necessary, and asked for their help in what he called the main task facing the nation: forming a trustworthy government.
Ukrainians heading to work Monday stopped at Independence Square to see the latest results on a television monitor, cheering and chanting "Yu-shchen-ko! Yu-shchen-ko!â ? Their cheers were punctuated by blasts from car horns.
RELATED STORY
Ukrainian Americans vote in Chicago
Far fewer problems
Some 12,000 foreign observers watched Sunday's unprecedented third-round vote to help prevent a repeat of the apparent widespread fraud that sparked massive protests after Yanukovych was declared the winner of the Nov. 21 vote.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commission member Mykola Melnyk insisted: "This repeat vote was fair and honest, especially in comparison with the second round.â ?
Both campaigns still complained of some violations.
But monitors said they had seen far fewer problems this round, in which 77.2 percent of registered voters turned out.
"This is another country,â ? said Stefan Mironjuk, a German election monitor observing the vote in the northern Sumy region. "The atmosphere of intimidation and fear during the first and second rounds was absent. ... It was very, very calm.â ?
No election-related violence was reported.
Powell, regional leaders laud results
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday called the election a "historic moment for democracy in Ukraineâ ? and urging citizens to accept the result.
"The Ukrainian people can truly be proud of this achievement,â ? Powell told reporters. "We congratulate Ukrainians for the courage they displayed in standing up for their democratic rights. We call on Ukrainians now to set their divisions behind them and to refrain from violence, separatism or provocations.â ?
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose own accession to power on a wave of peaceful protest in November 2003 inspired Ukraine's opposition, congratulated Yushchenko in a Ukrainian-language message delivered over Ukrainian television. Saakashvili, who attended law school in then-Soviet Ukraine, apparently was the first foreign leader to publicly recognize Yushchenko's victory.
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski congratulated Yushchenko on Monday, describing his victory as a "good and important choiceâ ? for Ukraine's relations with Europe, Kwasniewski's office said.
Poland's former president, Lech Walesa, told the Polish news agency PAP that Yushchenko's victory meant "Ukraine on its road to freedom and democracy made a small move toward Europe.â ?
Ukrainian VIP killed
Ukrainian Transport Minister and one of Ukraine's most prominent businessmen Heorhiy Kyrpa was found dead on Monday at his home outside Kiev, a government source said.
"An investigating group from the police are working at the scene. He was found dead with gunshot wounds at his dacha just at the outskirts of Kiev,â ? the source said.
The television station 5 Kanal reported a gun was found near the body. It was not clear whether Kyrpa killed himself or was murdered, the government source told Reuters.
Kyrpa was named transport minister in July as part of an overhaul by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.
Kyrpa has had close ties to Kuchma and at one time was mentioned as a possible candidate in the presidential election.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Apparently the "bad guy" who "stole" the original vote and poisoned the guy whose president now is a convicted criminal with a glorious illegal past. Interesting to see how things will turn out, those type of people normally DO NOT like to be embarrassed, especially publicly....
Joe
- Reaction score
- 5,604
- Points
- 1,360
This is just too much,
The lawmakers â Å“have no human qualities because when they were pressing the button (to pass the legislation), they didn't think about the complications,â ? Yanukovych said. â Å“And the main question ... concerns the deaths of eight people who died during the election. Who will take responsibility for these lives, I'd like to know.â ?
Careful you don't hurt yourself passing that buck too hard.
Just a footnote, we can sit back and say things like "those people and places" but without constant vigilance that could be us, someday.
Lets just hope it resolves peacefully and correctly.
The lawmakers â Å“have no human qualities because when they were pressing the button (to pass the legislation), they didn't think about the complications,â ? Yanukovych said. â Å“And the main question ... concerns the deaths of eight people who died during the election. Who will take responsibility for these lives, I'd like to know.â ?
Careful you don't hurt yourself passing that buck too hard.
Just a footnote, we can sit back and say things like "those people and places" but without constant vigilance that could be us, someday.
Lets just hope it resolves peacefully and correctly.
